Dr. Lois Weisman delivers a lecture to faculty and students at Tokyo Tech.”

On November 30^th 2019, Dr. Lois Weisman visited and delivered a lecture in the S2 conference room at Tokyo Tech. Dr. Weisman is a professor at the Life Sciences Institute, Department of Cell & Developmental Biology at University of Michigan, USA.

 The title of her talk was “Insights into cell-cycle progression under basal conditions and during adaptation to stress”. She spoke about her research uncovering the molecular relationships between cell cycle regulation and vacuole/lysosome functions, especially in stress conditions.

 When cells are exposed to environmental stresses such as high salt, high temperature, or starvation, it is known that the cell cycle stops until the cell adapts to the stressful environment. Adaptation generally occurs via changes in transcription and translation. However, there is a time lag before changes in gene expression, suggesting that more rapid mechanisms likely exist. They found that in yeast, a cyclin-dependent kinase provides protection against hyperosmotic stress through PI3,5P₂ and acts as a short-term measure before longer-term responses are implemented. Dr. Weisman also described a molecular mechanism for how cells re-start the cell division cycle after arrest under stress conditions.

              The research discussed by Dr. Weisman is done in collaboration with Dr. Jin and Dr. Ohsumi (Tokyo Tech), and is supported by the WRHI of Tokyo Tech.